Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
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Multicenter Study
Physicians' assessments of adjuvant tamoxifen's effectiveness in older patients with primary breast cancer.
To examine physicians' assessments of tamoxifen effectiveness in breast cancer patients, identify predictors of these assessments, and estimate the relationship between these assessments and receipt of tamoxifen prescription. ⋯ Estrogen receptor status most strongly influenced physicians' assessments of tamoxifen's effectiveness in individual patients; this effectiveness was not found to be associated with advancing patient age. Estrogen receptor status and enrollment site were related to receipt of tamoxifen prescription, but advancing age was not after accounting for physician's individualized assessment of tamoxifen's effectiveness. These findings suggest that an evidence-based approach for hormonal therapy has been widely adopted for care of older patients with breast cancer.